Lionel Messi will never win one major trophy says Ivan Rakitic

"You'll never win the Europa League!" said Ivan Rakitic, in his recent conversation with former teammate and FC Barcelona captain Lionel Messi.

Rakitic moved to Sevilla last year, amid the massive exodus that took place from Camp Nou which also included a botched transfer attempt by Messi. While the Argentine was forced to play out the remaining year of his contract because of a mega release clause, The Croatian successfully made the transfer down to the Andalusian club.

The former teammates saw each other again when Sevilla was eliminated by Barcelona in the Copa del Rey semi-final. Despite the loss, Rakitic found some humour in the situation and teased Messi that he won a trophy that the latter will most likely never win.

"I was speaking to Messi and said, 'You have won it all, have scored all these goals', but I told him, I have won a trophy you'll never have," Rakitic said, as quoted by Marca.

If Messi stays in FC Barcelona, it would take a real disaster for them to fail to qualify for the UEFA Champions League in the coming years. They also have a consistent streak of making it to the knockout stage, therefore eliminating the chances of them even playing in the Europa League.

Even if the Argentine leaves Camp Nou, he will likely choose a club that has close to the same chances as Barcelona to do well in the Champions League. Otherwise. MLS is another lucrative option, thus taking the Europa League trophy out of the equation as well.

Will all things considered, Rakitic has good reason to think that the chances are slim for Messi to lift the Europa League trophy on top of the 10 LaLiga titles, four Champions League trophies and six Ballon d'Or trophies that he's already won.

Many of those trophies were lifted alongside Rakitic himself, who had a successful run in Barcelona. He won 13 trophies with the Catalan club which included four LaLiga Santander titles, four Copas del Rey and a Champions League.